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Topic: Should we sack Steve Walsh? (Read 52375 times)

Don't think there was much wrong with a lot of the signings, you could certainly make a sensible case for most of them really. The only one I'm unsure of is Klaassan, not because there might not be a decent payer in there somewhere, eventually, but because we just didn't need him. You could maybe argue that we didn't really need Sig either and certainly not at that price but he came with a decent pedigree so you'd have expected him to have shown more so far.

I just don't think we have a manager with either the man management skills or the tactical knowhow to manage a team at this level. His ego and personality might get in the way too. Maybe Walsh fucked up with the striker situation and another centre half but we signed about a dozen players this summer across both age groups, to expect him to find us basically a whole new first team in one summer was a big ask of anyone.

There is enough talent there to be playing at a higher level than we are at present, that's down to one man.

If you think Koeman knew who Onyekuru, Sandro, Vlasic and Gana were I think you'd be mistaken. It's obvious that Martina, Stek and Schneiderlin were Koeman signings. It's likely that Klaassen was also. Koeman also seemed to have a massive hard-on for Rooney and Sigurdsson. Who knows with the others? Yes, it's guesswork but educated guesswork.

You can go back all last Spring and see evidence of the Rooney hard-on. Perhaps he's the classic "starfucker" type manager (after all, he was a legend, and no doubt remembers what it was like when he was on the decline, likely thought he was owed deference then too) and has lost the dressing room.

Just a working theory.

I would personally give Walsh some time before I blew his reign up, he obviously had no hand in picking Koeman. Then again, no idea what @kramer0 is referring to re these rumours, so not dismissing the "clean slate" option, either.

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"If you want a really scary thought, imagine how stupid the average American is. Then realize...half of 'em are dumber than THAT." - George Carlin

Walsh didn't make the decisions at Chelsea. Allardyce made them at Newcastle. At Hull, Pearson was the one deciding. At Leicester it was Pearson and then Ranieri.

Our recruitment structure is so opaque that assessing anything like that is difficult. He's getting a lot of stick for not bringing in a target man to replace Lukaku, but he tried to bring in one in January and one of the reasons Belfodil didn't come through was because Koeman wouldn't sign off on it without meeting the player.

But would Steve Walsh have any say in whether we would sack Koeman? I know that normally DOFs are involved in hiring managers.

He isn't really a Director of Football in the sense that one would normally associate one to be is he? He's head of scouting and recruitment really isn't he. Although the fact no-one knows what his remit is leads us to the situation.

Walsh didn't make the decisions at Chelsea. Allardyce made them at Newcastle. At Hull, Pearson was the one deciding. At Leicester it was Pearson and then Ranieri.

Our recruitment structure is so opaque that assessing anything like that is difficult. He's getting a lot of stick for not bringing in a target man to replace Lukaku, but he tried to bring in one in January and one of the reasons Belfodil didn't come through was because Koeman wouldn't sign off on it without meeting the player.

Not getting a centre forward is obviously a major failing, but there are just too many plausible explanations.

Why didn't we bring one in?

Could we not convince players to join? Did our valuation not meet the selling club/player's wage demands? Our search seemed to focus on target men, was Koeman unwilling to compromise on that? Did Walsh suggest a number of players but couldn't convince Koeman of their worth? Did we ultimately decide that a strike force of Rooney, Sandro, Calvert-Lewin (and Niasse?) was enough to see us okay? Did we decide that developing Calvert-Lewin was a better option than signing the target man 8th down our list? Could we not afford one? Did we dwell too long on our number one choice when it might have been more prudent to wrap up a young potential target man early on as a back up just in case?

We can probably answer a couple of those from interviews and journalist mutterings, but most of them haven't been addressed at all.

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Likes...

More and more articles flying around pointing the finger at Walsh and his accountability in Koeman’s sacking. I think anything less than a great January transfer window will see him sacked, too. He should be getting players lined-up now but not sure how he can when we don’t have a manager to consult.

More and more articles flying around pointing the finger at Walsh and his accountability in Koemans sacking. I think anything less than a great January transfer window will see him sacked, too. He should be getting players lined-up now but not sure how he can when we dont have a manager to consult.

Articles are there to sell papers and create discussion. It may even be a bit of subtle game play on Koeman's part to leak details to try and salvage his reputation for his next position.

Of course we didn't have a great window but over 50% of the signings I would imagine were Koeman's and how he utilised them was poor in the extreme.